Housewife – Fuck Around Phase (2023)
Brighid Fry, better known by their professional moniker Housewife, is a queer artist in a straight-male-dominated industry. Their new single, ‘Fuck Around Phase’, wastes no time getting to the subject matter with a delightful double entendre: the first lines are “Tuesday nights at the market / playing all the straight guys at the bar.” Housewife’s gig at this bar has the attention of all the straights, but Fry is not there for them, just the free drinks the boys offer. Fry has easily wrapped a couple of boys around their finger. It’s their world; the boys are just living in it. Housewife has way better things in store than a couple of third-year university students’ drunken late-night attempts at conversation.
Actually, Housewife has already achieved far better things than bar gigs with hammered boys. The indie-rock artist boasts several music awards for previous releases and has received praise from many outlets, including FLOOD Magazine and BrooklynVegan. For this single, Fry snagged frequent co-writer Gabe Simon and fellow singer-songwriter Savana Santos, and their powers combine to create an indie banger.
‘Fuck Around Phase’ is two minutes and forty-one seconds of power-pop of the highest order. Fry’s songwriting prowess is on full display here. The melody is repetitive and unbelievably catchy, and that’s perfect for a song clocking in under three minutes. Underneath the alternately languid and fiery vocals is a sticky, fuzzy guitar tone supporting the melody without drowning it out. The guitar dances up and down the fretboard, slowly, never repeating itself too much. It’s a brilliant move to move the riffing to the repetitive melody and have the guitar sing its own tune, just like Housewife. Don’t tell them how to behave. Housewife’s in their fuck-around phase. Don’t fuck around with them, lest, as the saying goes, you find out.
For more from Housewife, check out their Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
